Gautam Ghosh on Light Skin Bias in India

The HR Thought Leader Speaks

I have to apologize to the Indian MBAs. We had a long discussion and, so far, I've only had time to record the first issue I brought up.

This is an interesting topic for me but I don't want anyone to think that it was all I took away from our meeting. As you'll see in the rest of series, these are exemplary guys whom I admire very much.

But since Gautam Ghosh, whom we all know, has picked up the topic of light skin bias, I'd like to let him carry it forward.

I am a fairly dark skinned guy (even by Indian standards) so have faced the brunt of "apartheid" :-)

Yes, we Indians prefer fair-skinned people...and while matrimonial ads get to specify it for women, the same is expected out of a man...however it is not so explicity stated. If the man is a software engineer/doctor with a US visa/green card skin tone is last thing on the girl's parents' mind

This yearning for fair skin is not limited to regions in India but cut across almost all regions. Even in South India, where the majority of the population is dark skinned movie-stars have been very fair skinned.

It's only recently that Indian movies have started to feature actors and actresses with darker skin tones.

On the question why Krishna is blue, well the songs and written words depict him as dark skinned, so to differentiate him from other mortals in the paintings artists started painting him blue. Even Ram, and Vishnu are depicted as blue. Ram and Krishna actually are depicted as incarnations of Vishnu - the creator.

Gautam adds: The difference is that in the US/Canada/European context it becomes a race issue...and that gets a lot of people uncomfortable. But in India, the focus is only on skin tone, and not on 'race' per se.

Comments

[Gautam Ghosh]

CH, actually India is not totally a dark skinned country. Differences in skin tones are prevalent across regions and castes.

If you take a look at my latest pictures on my personal blog you'll notice that my younger daughter is quite fair compared to us or my older daughter. So in each family some gene emerges that makes some family members more fair than others :)

So you can say Indians are a nation where skin tones range from 'peach' to 'chocolate brown' on the color spectrum

Amitai, of course I know you more than what I knew before...maybe not about you, but surely now I know you more :) And same goes for Karen !

Brilliant insight on blogging Amitai...reminds me of something I wrote some time back:

http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2006/03/why-blogging-works.html

regards
Gautam

[Recruitomatic]

Todd Raphael's World of Talent blog on ERE references this interesting article on light skin/black skin and hiring practice:

http://www.redandblack.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/17/44e3f8b2c748b

[jb]

PLease see the CNN web site for the video storu of the Indian man who had his daughter in law killed because her black skin color would bring shame to the family.